JOHNSTOWN — A new gateway connecting Main Street directly to four-lane Route 56 behind Point Stadium is designed to improve access and make the downtown business district friendlier to visitors.

Johnstown city leaders learned Thursday the project will receive a $1.5 million Community Transportation Initiative grant for work that will also include landscaping, tree-planting and pedestrian walkway improvements.

It was among “Smart Transportation” projects in 41 communities receiving a total of $24.7 million in funding under the second round of the grants, PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler announced.

Somerset County will receive $617,500 to pave and improve traffic safety at the park-and-ride lot for 20 cars at the Route 30 and Route 219 interchange near Boswell.

Johnstown’s Main Street Gateway is part of the city’s master plan, which has focused planners’ attention on creating a “stroll district” in the lower Main Street area, Economic Development Coordinator Renee Daly said.

The state grant will fund engineering and construction to extend Main Street, which will curve slightly beyond the Point Stadium ticket booths. A new traffic light will allow access from both directions on Route 56.

Main Street also will become a two-way street, which should improve access throughout the downtown business district, Daly said.

“Through Lift Johnstown (organization) and talking to residents of Johnstown and residents of surrounding communities, there was a consensus it was not easy to get to Main Street,” Daly said.

Lift Johnstown has been working with the city to implement the master plan, said Brad Clemenson of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, who is helping to coordinate Lift Johnstown.

“Outsiders find Johnstown very confusing,” Clemenson said. “We have a Main Street that doesn’t connect with anything. This will make it easier for people to get in and out of the downtown.”

The idea is to bring people and businesses back into downtown, Clemenson said.

“It should be easier to attract development to that lower Main Street area,” Clemenson said. “It will also open up access for those existing businesses.”

The master plan prepared by Kairos Design Group envisions a family-friendly entertainment district with restaurants, stores and homes, Daly said.

“This is the first large grant that we have received on the implementation of the plan,” Daly said.

“This is not only a home run in getting the grant, but it is also the first step in moving forward with the master plan. We are very excited.”

Daly expects to begin engineering work by spring, with construction to be completed within three years. Local matching funds were provided by the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies and Community Conservation Partnership Program state grant received for improvements in a Kernville neighborhood park.

Johnstown’s project was already on the drawing board when PennDOT announced its Community Transportation Initiative, Daly noted.

“The stroll district fit perfectly into what that grant program was set up to fund,” Daly said.

“It encourages transportation, but also brings the community together and provides a better quality of life."

Signage included in the project will identify urban walking routes for a growing network that encourage alter-nate transportation modes, Clemenson said.

“It is pretty exciting,” Clemenson said. “It ties in with making the city a more livable community.”

Craig Bachik of the Kairos Group called the Main Street gateway the “backbone” of the proposed Stroll District.

“It will start some major reinvestment, we believe, into Downtown Johnstown,” Bachik said. “This is a really good thing for the city of Johnstown.”

Somerset County’s grant will improve safety and convenience at the parking lot that has become a popular meeting place for commuters, said Brad Zearfoss, head of the county planning commission.

“It is a spot where people have been parking for a long, long time,” Zearfoss said.

“People meet there and carpool. On most days the lot is filled.”

Lighting and traffic control engineering will improve safety, county Commissioner Jimmy Marker said.

“A lot of it will be aesthetic, but it also will be to control the ingress and egress,” Maker said, noting it was the second time the county applied to the state to fund the project.